Joerg H. Trauboth(Wikipedia) was born just outside of Berlin in 1943 during an air-raid. He discovered his love for writing early in his career as an officer and was awarded top honors by the General Inspector of the German Bundeswehr. Along the way, he flew over two thousand flight hours as a Weapons Systems Officer and instructor in the Phantom RF4E (in which he survived two critical lightening strikes). After a training in George AFB (CA), Major Joerg H. Trauboth flew the Phantom F4F and finally – followed by another conversion training in Cottesmore (UK) – the Tornado aircrafts. Trauboth became a General Staff Officer in the Military Academy of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg-Blankenese and enrolled as LtCol in the NATO Defense College in Rome. He has served in the German national operational headquarters as well as in the NATO Headquarters in Brussels as the German representative in the areas of Crisis Management, Operations, and Intelligence.

At the age of fifty, he retired early from his post as a Colonel in the German Air Force to become a Special Risk Consultant at the Control Risk Group in London. He was trained and engaged in negotiating extortion and kidnapping situations in South America and Eastern Europe.

The former Colonel, eager to start making money on his own soon founded the Trauboth Risk Management company. He received a startup award and quickly made a reputation for himself internationally as an top-notch crisis manager in Europe. During his time as CEO, he conceptualized crisis prevention strategies for a number of European companies and employed a 24-hour task force to protect them from product tampering, product recalls, kidnappings, and image crises. He was also a co-founder and the first president of the European Crisis Management Academy in Vienna and wrote a standard reference book on the subject of crisis management for companies at risk of threat.

Today Joerg H. Trauboth is an author, filmmaker with more than 75.000 youtube clicks, and an enthusiastic Grumman Tigerpilot. (See this latest night flight-video here. And if you want to know who his favorite Co-Pilot is, have a look here.) The crisis manager and active pilot has served as the European Director and President of the US – based international American Yankee Pilots Organization.

His advice on crisis management is continually sought after and he is present as expert in radio and television interviews regarding his opinion on international crisis situations.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

Q: Welcome to Beyond the Books, Joerg. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?

I have published two non-fiction reference books on Crisis Management in Germany and now my first novel, a thriller entitled Three Brothers (original German title: Drei Brüder). It has just been published as a print and eBook for the English-speaking market, and was translated by U.S.-native Leanne Cvetan, who lives not far from me in Frankfurt. I was lucky to find her through an internet search in only two months. She was able to accurately convey my thinking and intention between the lines. Readers of the German and English version have confirmed this and that makes this author very happy.

Q: When you were published for the first time, which route did you go – mainstream, small press, vanity published or self-published and why or how did you choose this route?

After about 15 unsuccessful attempts and losing months, I often empathized with the former welfare recipient Joanne Rowling who had more than 30 unsuccessful attempts with her Harry Potter idea. Publishers said the book was too long and not a seller. And now look at this lady!

Just as she did, I found by recommendation a small publisher in my local area, Franz Koenig of www.ratio-books.de. He was fascinated by Three Brothers right from the beginning. We began with the German edition Drei Brüder in 2015 and this year we are going international, followed by an audio book. Yes, sometimes I had wish I had a big publisher with a huge marketing machine behind me. But seeing what is possible today for a new author with social media, reading tours and events organized by a one-man publishing house, it is amazing what can happen! The success of my other two reference books, as well as my life experience (from a fighter bomber crew member to an emergency pastoral counsellor) allowed me access to radio and TV interviews in Germany and even got my name into Wikipedia. But most importantly: I trust my publisher and he likewise trusts me. He knows that I must have my freedom to be creative. And I know that I must give him maximum support with marketing. We are a team.

Q: How long did it take you to get published once you signed the contract?

I wrote this thriller in about five months. All the unsuccessful submissions to publishers and agents cost me a further six months. By chance, I found a publisher in my local area and soon signed the contract. My distress during the time that was wasted was that a thriller about terrorism would negatively impact the political developments in the world. But the opposite happened, thankfully.

Q: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

In Germany, they say you need to be a either a doctor or an author to be accepted as somebody different. I was always different in my life and did not need one nor the other. Therefore, after my first non-fiction book, I just continued to work in my real job as a crisis management consultant. But after my first thriller, devoted to my wife Martina, there was a noticeable difference. We went out for dinner and I dreamed of a successful career like Tom Clancy or Brad Thor and of Hollywood. Who knows…?

Q: What was the first thing you did as far as promotion when you were published for the first time?

Press release, press conference, social media. Follow up actions: readings, presentations and talk shows as security and crisis management expert. I learned to play with social media and am still learning.

Q: Since you’ve been published, how have you grown as a writer and now a published author?

All over the world the number of new books and authors is so great that you have an almost preordained risk of falling into obscurity if you do not do any marketing for yourself. A book is 30 % writing and 70 % marketing. I am not a top-listed author (yet!) but my publisher and I are very happy with the number of books and eBooks we have sold based on various marketing campaigns. International exposure, such as support from the wonderful Dorothy Thompson, will definitely help the success of Three Brothers.

Q: What has surprised or amazed you about the publishing industry as a whole?

The book market is both hard-fought and fruitful. Amazon is devouring the traditional market, simultaneously giving huge opportunities especially to newcomers and even known names.

Q: What is the most rewarding thing about being a published author?

Feeling good about having created something tangible and exciting. Like a mother with her newborn baby. Everything else, like making a profit with it, is a very nice add-on.

Q: Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?

Don’t just have a dream – do it. You just might be the next top author in the charts.

Marc Anderson and his two commando brothers Thomas and Tim are highly respected elite soldiers in the secretive German Commando Special Forces, the KSK. Together with the American Navy Seals, they successfully rescue the crew of a downed American F-15 tactical fighter jet in the Hindu Kusch Mountains under a barrage of heavy fire from the Taliban. However, their next mission – in Northern Iraq – to save two German hostages taken captive by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ends in disaster for the three brothers in arms. The perfectly laid-out strategy of Operation Eagle is betrayed, causes Marc, Thomas, and Tim to narrowly escape death. The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) starts the hunt for the informant.

The devoted commando brothers decide to leave the KSK and start a new career together as security advisors with a family-owned company based in Cologne. But the terrorist activities of ISIS continue to determine their fate. The brothers are faced with one of their greatest challenges when ISIS kidnaps company heir Johannes Ericson and his partner Karina Marie. Moreover, the terrorists demand a ransom and extort the German government to immediately suspend its military intervention in the fight against ISIS. It is a race against time to save the couple from assassination.

Joerg H. Trauboth has written more than just an exhilarating novel. Three Brothers unites the current omnipresent threat of terrorism with the author’s first-hand experience as a crisis manager and a military and terrorism expert. The result is an unrivaled political thriller. In this gripping novel, Trauboth foretells possible scenarios for our society in light of the rise of radical Islamic terrorism. Read the full chapter 1 here …

Three Brothers is the English translation of the successful German thriller Drei Brüder (ratio-books), highly appreciated by thousands of readers, as well as military organizations and government officials alike. Jörg H. Trauboth’s storytelling skills can be compared to those of Tom Clancy and similar authors as James Patterson. The German version of the novel will also soon be available as an audio book.

Drei Brüder has been translated into English by (US native) Leanne Cvetan.